The Meaning of English in a Life of Modern Individual Essay

Introduction

English as a language is very common to us all. In school, this is seen not as a subject to be studied but as a language that must be used both to teach and learn. At home, English may not always be the medium used by the family members but it is understood by everyone that this is a language that they soon must learn. In business establishments around the world, English may not always be the medium used by the workers but they, too, are aware that this is the medium that is essential if the company is gearing towards globalization. Indeed, English is becoming part of our lives now. It is a part of our system. It has become a part of our past and will surely retain as an important aspect of our future.

The English Language Users

It should be noted that English is now the official language in more than 75 countries around the globe. An estimated 1 billion humans are studying it, mainly because they want to leave home and succeed elsewhere. It was estimated that nearly a quarter of the overall human population now uses English as a language. It is revealed that the world’s English speakers – which can be categorized to those who speak it natively, as a second language in their own country and as a foreign language entirely – have already outnumbered the population of China (Eckhouse, 1999).

The history of learning and/or using the English language can be traced even from the Anglo-Saxon era. It should be remembered that English belongs to a linguistic grouping known as the Germanic languages; it is closer to German than to French or Spanish, which evolved from Latin. Germanic tribes repeatedly invaded the island the Romans called Britannia between 400 and 800. First, waves of Frisians, Angles, Saxons, and Jutes crossed the North Sea, subjugating and absorbing Celtic cultures. Viking incursions, beginning in 787, brought another linguistic invasion. Christian missionaries introduced Latin words. By the 800s, Anglo-Saxon, a.k.a. Old English, had emerged from this stew and was flourishing in various forms – Mercian, Kentish, Northumbrian, and Alfred’s dialect, West Saxon. Over the centuries, English evolved as England did. The Norman Conquest, in 1066, placed England under a king who spoke a different language, a precursor of French. The Norman rulers imposed that language upon Old English as it evolved into Middle English, the language of Chaucer’s 14th-century “The Canterbury Tales.” That, in turn, evolved into Modern English around Shakespeare’s time, the end of the 16th century. Since then, English had become a major European language, one among many (Eckhouse, 1999).

How did it happen? Beginning in the 18th century, it was the military that carried English beyond England’s shores for good. As European colonizers swept across the globe, the British Empire spread British subjects. The world wars carried American and British soldiers around the world, pollinating English as they went. Countries/continents under this colonization include North America, Australia, India, Southeast Asia, Africa, and the Caribbean. More than a quarter of the world’s population by 1900 had little choice but to learn English to communicate in the countries that formed around them. And it has been used and followed by many other countries until now (Eckhouse, 1999).

When the 20th century came, it brings along a burst of technology. Suddenly people were talking across oceans, flying across continents, hearing broadcasts that reverberated around the planet. The language spread faster than ever. It can even fly across continents through the power of cyberspace or the Internet, where English has been the lingua franca since the beginning. English speakers represented 54% of Internet users in 1999 (Adams, 1990).

English for the Second Language Learners

English as a second language has been demanded in every country that is willing to become globally competitive. In this case, English has become a very important requirement for every individual – who falls to different social categories like working, student, parents, etc. – in developing, as much as in the developed countries. Even in the corporate world, English has become one of the requirements to be ‘in’ and grow as a worker. Companies and corporations do not just hire employees who can speak and understand English, but they hire those who have a good command of the language. Big businesses even spend an ample amount of money for their employees’ training and seminars on the English language, most particularly in Business English.

Indeed, it has been revealed that to succeed in the university and the work world, students need to learn both analytic and communication skills. These skills include analyzing a body of information, separating opinion from fact, reaching conclusions about the data, formulating recommendations, and communicating these conclusions and recommendations effectively and efficiently to a particular audience. Teaching these skills engages students on a variety of intellectual levels, from simply summarizing information to reasoning independently after finally learning difficult textual information. (Curry, 1996)

It is important to note, especially for the teachers of English that the course is related to the students’ expectations, more so with its sponsors’. Course organizers will have requested English because they want a course that relates to occupational or professional language needs. Investigating, analyzing, and fulfilling English students’ needs are, in fact, so important for the success of any English course that a great deal of attention should be paid attention to the processes of developing the course. Even if the teacher sees his role as a teacher as being quite well-defined, but as an English teacher, he will have to do well to consider tasks or concerns which may seem peripheral or beyond a teacher’s role. The teacher’s priority, after all, is to run successful courses, and for this to be possible in the field of English, he may need to consider wider issues that concern the course, the students as well as its sponsors. The teacher must expect that there might come a point when he will have to change his strategies and principles during the teaching-learning activities for a more appropriate approach that would satisfy the needs of the students in English and communication as a whole (Donna, 2000). The course should be flexible such that a need to put more emphasis on an even more significant topic may arise and therefore must have to be considered.

Meanwhile, as for the English as Second Language learners, the ability to speak the English language fluently adds up to a person’s confidence thus, he becomes more aggressive and critical with his transactions with an English speaker because he can speak the language that the other person does.

Thus, students must learn the advantages of mastering the English language, most particularly about their jobs or future career. In this case, a discussion of the various advantages would seem fit for the course. This way, the students will be able to practice interacting with each other using the English language. Through this interaction, they become familiar with the language thus they will become comfortable using the English language in their conversations.

In addition, to further familiarize the students with the English language, simulations could be an effective way of practicing oral communication skills using the English language. Presentations are usually required of business executives most specifically in meetings and conferences. For them to overcome their fears in talking in front of a group, students can be grouped initially to make presentations then, later on, do individual reporting or presentation using the English language towards the end.

References

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Ball, E. W., & Blachman, B. A. 1991. “Does phoneme awareness training in kindergarten make a difference in early word recognition and developmental spelling?” Reading Research Quarterly, 26, 49-66.

Blachman, B. A. 1991. P”honological awareness: Implications for pre-reading and early reading instruction.” In S. A. Brady & D. P. Shankweiler (Eds.), Phonological processes in literacy (pp. 29-36). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum Associates.

Chamberlain, C., & Medeiros-Landurand, P. 1991. “Practical considerations for the assessment of LEP students with special needs.” In E.V. Hamayan & J. S. Damico (Eds.), Limiting bias in the assessment of bilingual students. Austin, TX: Pro-Ed.

Curry, M. (1996) Teaching managerial communication to ESL and native-speaker undergraduates. (English as a Second Language) Business Communication Quarterly.

Donna, S. (2000) Teach Business English (Cambridge Handbooks for Language Teachers). Cambridge University Press.

Eckhouse, B. (1999) Competitive Communication: A Rhetoric for Modern Business. Oxford University Press. New York.

Ochoa, S. H., Powell, M. P., & Robles-Pina, R. 1996. “School psychologists’ assessment practices with bilingual and limited English proficient students.” Journal of Psychoeducational Assessment, 14, 250-275